The Texas 14th Court of Appeals had a three-judge Q&A session with law students and held oral arguments for two cases for students to watch law in action. | File Photo/The Cougar

Justice Marc Brown, who graduated from the Law Center in 1987, never planned on being a judge. However, during the 22 years he worked as a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Brown realized his biggest complaint was the lack of criminal law experience among appellate judges.

In 2013, after presiding over the 180th District Court of Harris County for three years, he saw the opportunity to change that by filling an empty seat on Texas’ Fourteenth Court of Appeals, but he hesitated to accept the position.

Then, his wife gave him an ultimatum.

“She just started laughing,” Brown said. “She said, ‘you do whatever you want, but if you don’t do this, you can never complain to me (about criminal law experience).”

The University of Houston Law Center hosted the Fourteenth Court of Appeals Friday at Krost Hall, where justices Brett Busby, Kevin Jewell and Brown heard oral arguments on civil and criminal cases and then conducted a Q&A panel with current law students.

The Fourteenth Court of Appeals is composed of a chief justice and eight other justices. It has the power to review both civil and criminal cases appealed from lower courts in 10 Texas counties, including Harris County.

The justices then heard arguments on a criminal appeal — Islas v. State of Texas. The case discussed whether the State of Texas was in the wrong for failing to notify a magistrate — a judge — when withdrawing blood of someone accused of intoxicated manslaughter.

The appellant claimed that omitting an earlier blood withdrawal of the accused was misleading to the magistrate.